What the papers said in the week ending May 30th
No escape from Covid-19: the easing of restrictions is providing encouragement but some people feel this is being allowed too soon, as infection rates and death rates remain high.
Religion and religious leaders continue to have their voices heard in the media:
- Bishops united in their condemnation of the behaviour of Dominic Cummings, Special Adviser to Boris Johnson. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/25/dominic-cummings-draws-condemnation-from-across-uk-society
- https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/25/bishops-turn-on-boris-johnson-for-defending-dominic-cummings
- They were rewarded by death threats and advice that religion should have no part in politics https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-52804464
- Their views were welcomed and shared by many who have written to their MPs and look for sound ethical and moral leadership at this and all times. This is not something which people want to see swept under the carpet – and ‘move on’. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/29/constituents-bombard-mps-with-180000-emails-about-dominic-cummings
The Church of England, and perhaps other Churches and faith communities. are promising to organise nationwide services for the bereaved, which includes all of us, when circumstances allow. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/29/religious-leaders-plan-events-to-remember-uk-coronavirus-victims There are murmurings which suggest that return to versions of communal worship will become possible before long
The accumulated number of excess deaths continues to rise – now over 60,000 compared with an ordinary year https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/26/uk-coronavirus-deaths-weekly-covid-19
Consequences of the crisis include paralysis of the legal system. https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/may/24/uk-faces-backlog-of-400000-criminal-cases-due-to-coronavirus
Change of life style in the lock-down has affected the genders unequally:
- Women have taken on multiple additional roles in the home and community, lost jobs and may not be able to return to them – some jobs will not be there.
- There are fears that this will damage to the progress toward equality which has been gained in recent decades https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/may/29/we-are-losers-in-this-crisis-research-finds-lockdowns-reinforcing-gender-inequality
Care Homes continue to report new cases and more deaths:
- There are suggestions that advice to enact a model like that which has been successful in Hong Kong and other countries was provided to our government by Public Health leaders in April, but was set aside https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/28/government-rejected-radical-lockdown-england-care-homes-coronavirus
- https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/28/why-did-so-many-people-die-of-covid-19-in-the-uks-care-homes
- People are now dying in Homes which in earlier weeks seemed to have survived with great care and discipline. The virus is not yet gone away.
Research from the University of Exeter raises the possibility that the genetic variant ApoE-e4 renders people more vulnerable to severe effects of Covid-19:
- ApoE-e4 is associated with development of Alzheimer’s disease, but it is said that the genetic vulnerability to Covid-19 is independent of the presence or absence of Alzheimer’s. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/26/research-reveals-gene-role-in-both-dementia-and-severe-covid-19
- https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid-19-genetic-risk-factors-alzheimers-disease
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200526091412.htm
WHO has stopped a trial of President Trump’s wild-card hunch that the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine might be protective against Covid-19. People taking the drug were more likely to die than controls. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52799120
Windrush: On another important matter, not quite excluded from the headlines, we are shamed to know that only 60 people out of 1,275 who have applied for compensation for damage by the Windrush scandal have yet received any money. Payments to most of those 60 have been modest https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/28/windrush-scandal-only-60-victims-given-compensation-so-far
It is good news for the older generation that JK Rowling is releasing a serialised story of the Ickabog – for us to read with the youngsters. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/26/jk-rowling-announces-new-childrens-book-the-ickabog-to-be-published-free-online
Bob Weighton, a Briton and former teacher and engineer, who was the world’s oldest man, has died at 112. He lived independently and busily to the end https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/28/worlds-oldest-man-dies-in-hampshire-aged-112
The regular Thursday evening community clap for the NHS and others may have been abandoned. It has brought people together: Is this the last hurrah for clap for carers?
David Jolley
